John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys

I know not with what successe I have endeavourd to performe your Commands; but it has ben to the uttmost of my skill, of which you are to be my judges: The favour I bespeake of you is, your pardon for not sending it before: I have not enjoy’d one minutes repose since my returne (now a fortnight past) ‘till this very morning; having ben ever since soliciting for a little monye to preserve my miserable flock from perishing2: On Saturday, very late, I dispatch’d Mr Barbour towards3 my Kentish Circle where our sick people are in quarters; and at his returne, I hope to present you a compleate Accompt but ‘till this instant morning I had not written one line of these tedious Papers; so that if through hast (the parent of mistakes) there may happly appeare some Escapes, give Pardon to your Servant; or let me purchase it with this small Present of Fragments (such as yet you have ben pleasd to accept) and a little Booke4, that I also recommend to excuse my expense of such Leasure as I can redeeme from the other impertinences of my life. As to the Report which I send you, I would receive it as a favour; however your resolutions of putting it in execution may succeede (the tyme of yeare being so farr Elaps’d, in reguard of Action, and more immediate use) it might yet be gracefully presented to his Royall Highnesse, or rather indeede, to his Majestie himselfe, who has so frequently ben pleas’d to take notice of it to me as an acceptable Project; because it would afflict me to have them thinke I have either ben remisse, or trifling in my proposall.

This obligation I can onely hope for from your Dexterity, Addresse and Friendship, who am,

The Bearer hereoff Roger Winne, being our Messenger (and without whose service I cannot possibly be, having so frequent occasions of sending him about buisinesse belonging to my troublesome Employment) dos by me supplicate your protection, that he may not be Pressed, of which he is hourely in danger as he travells about our affaires, without your particular indulgence, which I therefore, conjure you to let him have under your hand and signature.

Source: Bodleian MS Rawl. A195, f.249. No endorsement. This letter is associated with a Report by E on the projected Chatham Infirmary, presented as a further letter of the same date to P (see letter of 26 Mar 1666). Both were originally published by William Bray in editions of the diary with correspondence, presumably from this source, but this is not stated.

Probably E’s (anonymous) translation of Les Pernicieuses Conséquences De la nouvelle Heresie des Jesuites contre le Roy et contre l’Estat, by Pierre Nicole, and published in 1666 by E as The Pernicious Consequences of the new Heresie of the Jesuites, against the King and the State (diary, 1 March 1666; and Keynes, no. 79). ↩

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John Evelyn

Samuel Pepys

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Thanks to Guy de la Bédoyère for supplying the text and footnotes for this letter. You can purchase his book, Particular Friends: The Correspondence of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.